Meme coins: Like baseball cards

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I like to watch Antiques Roadshow on PBS. Some of the art works, jewelry, etc. are truly splendid and it’s a pleasure to see them. But others, like baseball cards worth tens of thousands of dollars, simply amaze me. Their value depends entirely on the craving of collectors.

Since it’s expensive to make new shows, PBS also re-runs old programs. The original valuations are compared with current valuations. The whims of collectors push the new valuations in different directions. If an item goes out of style with collectors its value can drop. Conversely, other items become more valuable with time.

The value of any item is worth what a collector will pay for it. In a couple of generations, boys probably won’t play physical baseball and won’t remember baseball greats of the past or be willing to shell out major bucks to buy cards with their antique photos.

The IRS recognizes market forces on collectibles. Even gold coins are taxed as collectibles when they are sold. Capital gains from gold coins are not taxed as capital gains from the sale of stock or real estate. Like other collectibles, the price of gold has been volatile over the years.

Meme coins are similar to baseball cards. They aren’t legal tender and can’t be used to buy a box of cereal at Wal-Mart. Bitcoin has been used to pay for illegal transactions but most meme coins are purely speculative.

https://www.wsj.com/finance/trump-meme-coin-crypto-explained-c881afff?mod=finance_lead_pos1

$TRUMP Is Already Worth Billions. What to Know About the Meme Coin.

Critics warn the token erodes any boundaries between the president’s political and business interests

By Vicky Ge Huang, The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 22, 2025

Just days ahead of his return to the White House, President Trump and his wife Melania launched a pair of meme coins that have skyrocketed in value and earned them billions of dollars, at least on paper.

Dubbed $TRUMP and $MELANIA, the tokens are a type of cryptocurrency that doesn’t serve any economic purpose and whose value is based largely on the popularity of internet memes…

It’s relatively easy to create a meme coin.

Meme coins are created based on funny or viral internet memes—a joke, an image or a turn of phrase that is often associated with animals or celebrities. Because of their fun and lighthearted nature, the tokens typically serve no purpose other than to bring a few chuckles to an internet community keen on sharing the joke…

These days, anyone can create a meme coin within minutes thanks to the proliferation of websites that specialize in one-stop token creation. Users simply need to plug in the desired names, tickers and descriptions of their tokens and pay a fee before launching their very own meme coins…Millions of tokens have been created on the network, though most have failed to gain traction. …

Regardless of where they trade, a key feature of meme coins is their extreme volatility. Their prices swing wildly based on the hype surrounding the underlying memes. Most meme coins can’t be used to buy anything in the real world; their value is assigned by fellow internet users. …One of the primary criticisms of meme coins is their susceptibility to pump-and-dump schemes in which large holders cause sharp price declines by selling more tokens than the market can absorb… [end quote]

The whole meme coin phenomenon is a sign of a crazy speculative market bubble environment. Historians will look back at meme coins and shake their heads the way I shake my head over baseball card traders.

Like other meme coins, the $TRUMP meme coin is speculative. Unlike gold, a meme coin has no physical existence and can’t be held in the hand. How long will it take for its value vanish into the nothingness of market indifference?

Wendy

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I never got into watching that thing on PBS. I do tend to glance at “Pawn Stars” reruns on Defy. The entire show is scripted, it’s all fake, but there are some legitimately interesting things shown. The worst thing I can do on a Sunday night, is flip over to Defy, after watching the “Dick VanDyke Show” on MeTV, at midnight. In no time, I realize it’s past 2am.

By “legitimately interesting”, I don’t mean the Franklin Mint krap, like “collectible Elvis plates, each numbered, with certificate of authenticity”

Steve

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The cycle should end any day now.

The cycle is four years. Flat for a year. Up slowly for a year. Up manic for year. Dramatically down for much of a year.

We are at the top of manically up for a year but this time it was not so manic. It is old hat. The smarter traders know the pattern.

The talk right now is holding the market up but it can fall at any time.

The major manic year is marked by BTC halving. The supply goes down. The last halving was around April 2024.

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Around 36 months.

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That’s a bit of an elitist attitude, isn’t it?

The art works, jewelry, etc. value also depends entirely on the cravings of collectors. Just different types of collectors.

Although there is also some intrinsic value to the gems and precious metals of the jewelry.

Meme coins are something entirely different than baseball cards.

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Please explain how. (I will confess to elitist tastes in art.)

Wendy

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Here’s one thing, though - art works and jewelry are often reproduced. Many famous works of art end up copied - directly as reproductions in posters and prints, or adorning other objects like coffee mugs or on t-shirts. Similarly, precious jewels like diamonds and sapphires end up being mimicked in costume jewelry.

That’s a pretty clear indication that people derive pleasure/joy from the aesthetics of the art or the appearance of jewels, completely divorced from their value as a unique or rare collectible. We know people think these things are lovely and enjoyable to look at, because they pay money to have that experience without having the experience of owning the thing.

We don’t really see that with baseball cards. People will value collecting the authentic baseball card…but I don’t think there’s any real market for duplicates of those authentic baseball cards.

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There’s nothing physical to collect with a meme coin - you can’t see it, handle it, or show it to your friends etc.

But I also agree with albaby1 that there is no market for copies of baseball cards but there is for copies of artwork and jewelry.

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…at a heavy discount to the original. There would probably be a market for reproduction baseball cards at a similar discount to the original.

Steve

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Well, I won’t profess to being a meme coin expert.

Like a baseball card, meme coins are only worth what others are willing to pay for them.

If both are worth nothing, you can still use a baseball card for other stuff. You can put it in your bicycle spokes to make a nifty clickety clack sound, or burn it for heat. You can’t do much with a worthless meme coin.

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